October 24
Along the River's Bank
Sun Position
The Sun is in Scorpius near -15° declination. Northern Hemisphere days are now clearly shorter than nights across all mid-latitudes; Southern Hemisphere days are clearly longer than nights.
Sky Highlight
The Orionid shower declines through late October, but sporadic fireball activity remains elevated. Late October is also when Taurus begins to be well-placed in the evening sky, the Pleiades and Hyades clusters rise in the east after dark, signaling that Orion's full winter display is not far behind.
Deep Sky Object
NGC 1535, a planetary nebula roughly 5,000 light-years away. NGC 1535 in Eridanus is a bright, compact planetary nebula sometimes called Cleopatra's Eye for its concentric shells of blue-green glowing gas, the remnant of a Sun-like star that shed its outer layers, revealing the white dwarf at its center. Accessible from both hemispheres; better placed from Southern Hemisphere and low northern latitudes.
Featured Star
Angetenar (τ² Eri) is an orange giant (K1III) about 210 light-years away, one of the quieter stations along the winding path of Eridanus. Its name comes from an Arabic phrase meaning the bank of the river, a geographic marker in the sky-river rather than a hero or creature, practical rather than mythological. Angetenar, the river's bank, a quiet orange star along Eridanus.
Around This Date
- October 24, 1946A modified V-2 rocket at White Sands, New Mexico took the first photograph of Earth from space at an altitude of 105 km, captured on 35mm film and recovered in a steel cassette after the rocket impacted the desert.
- October 28, 1971The United Kingdom launched its Prospero satellite on a Black Arrow rocket, becoming the sixth nation to independently launch a satellite, the only British independent orbital launch to date.
Angetenar has no myth, only a position, a marker on a river that crosses half the sky.